"Many Photos" - SpaceX launch sends 3D bioprinter to space station

A space capsule carrying a 3D printer to make human tissue is on its way to the International Space Station after a thunderous SpaceX launch.

The private company’s Falcon 9 rocket dodged threatening clouds in its lift-off, sending a Dragon capsule on its third trip to the orbiting outpost. 

The ship will dock with the station early on Saturday after its a 6pm EDT (11 pm BST) launch from Florida yesterday.

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A space capsule carrying a 3D printer to make human tissue is on its way to the International Space Station after a thunderous SpaceX launch

The spacecraft launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. 

Among the 5,000 lbs of cargo Dragon is carrying are a number of science experiments - several of which concentrate on cellular science - as well as normal supplies.

Officials at biotech companies nScrypt and Techshot say the mini-refrigerator-sized 3D printer will be controlled by scientists on the ground and print nerve cells, muscle cells and proteins.

The experiment uses the near lack of gravity to help the cells hold their shape.

Using 3D biological printers to produce usable human organs has long been a dream of scientists and doctors around the globe. 

However, printing the tiny, complex structures found inside human organs, such as capillary structures, has proven difficult to accomplish in Earth’s gravity. 

To overcome this challenge, Techshot designed their BioFabrication Facility to print organ-like tissues in microgravity.

This is a stepping stone in a long-term plan to manufacture whole human organs in space using refined biological 3D printing techniques. 

The private company’s Falcon 9 rocket dodged threatening clouds in its lift-off, sending a Dragon capsule on its third trip to the orbiting outpost

Officials at biotech companies nScrypt and Techshot Inc say the mini-refrigerator-sized 3D printer (pictured) will be controlled by scientists on the ground and print nerve cells, muscle cells and proteins

WHAT ARE THE SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS BEING CARRIED ABOARD THE FALCON 9? 

Bio-Mining in Microgravity

One experiment, known as Biorock, will look into mining for signs of life and valuable materials on planets and space rocks.

It will provide insight into the physical interactions of liquid, rocks and microorganisms under microgravity conditions and improve the efficiency and understanding of mining materials in space. 

Bio-mining eventually could help explorers on the Moon or Mars acquire needed materials, lessening the need to use precious resources from Earth and reducing the amount of supplies that explorers must take with them.

Improving Tire Manufacturing from Orbit 

The Goodyear Tire investigation will use microgravity to push the limits of silica fillers for tire applications.

A better understanding of silica morphology and the relationship between silica structure and its properties could improve the silica design process, silica rubber formulation and tire manufacturing and performance.

Such improvements could include increased fuel efficiency, which would reduce transportation costs and help to protect Earth’s environment.

Effects of Microgravity on Microglia 3D Models 

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) – adult cells genetically programmed to return to an embryonic stem cell-like state – have the ability to develop into any cell type in the human body, potentially providing an unlimited source of human cells for therapeutic purposes. 

Space Tango-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells examines how specialised white blood cells derived from iPSCs of patients with Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis grow and move in 3D cultures, and any changes in gene expression that occur as a result of exposure to a microgravity environment. 

The results could lead to the development of potential therapies. 

Mechanisms of Moss in Microgravity

Space Moss compares mosses grown aboard the space station with those grown on Earth to determine how microgravity affects its growth, development, and other characteristics. 

Tiny plants without roots, mosses need only a small area for growth, an advantage for their potential use in space and future bases on the Moon or Mars. 

This investigation also could yield information that aids in engineering other plants to grow better on the Moon and Mars, as well as on Earth. 

Dragon will join three other spacecraft currently at the space station. 

Expedition 60 Flight Engineers Nick Hague and Christina Koch of NASA will use the station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2, to grab, or grapple, Dragon around 10 am EDT.

Coverage of robotic installation to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module will begin at 12 pm EDT.

A key item in Dragon’s unpressurized cargo section is International Docking Adapter-3 (IDA-3). 

Flight controllers at mission control in Houston will use the robotic arm to extract IDA-3 from Dragon and position it over Pressurized Mating Adapter-3, on the space-facing side of the Harmony module. 

Hague and NASA astronaut Drew Morgan, who arrived at the station Saturday, July 20, will conduct a spacewalk in mid-August to install the docking port, connect power and data cables, and set up a high-definition camera on a boom arm.

Robotics flight control teams from NASA and the Canadian Space Agency will move the docking port into position remotely before the astronauts perform the final installation steps. 

IDA-3 and IDA-2, which was installed in the summer of 2016, provide a new standardised and automated docking system for future spacecraft, including upcoming commercial spacecraft that will transport astronauts through contracts with NASA.

The private company’s Falcon 9 rocket dodged threatening clouds in its lift-off, sending a Dragon capsule on its third trip to the orbiting outpost. 

This delivery, SpaceX’s 18th cargo flight to the space station under a commercial resupply services contract with NASA, will support dozens of new and existing investigations. 

The space station continues to be a one-of-a-kind laboratory where NASA is conducting world-class research in fields, such as biology, physics, and materials science. 

NASA’s research and development work aboard the space station contributes to the agency’s deep space exploration plans, including returning astronauts to the Moon’s surface in five years and preparing to send humans to Mars.

For more than 18 years, humans have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies.

This research has made breakthroughs not possible on Earth that will enable long-duration human and robotic exploration into deep space. 

A global endeavour, more than 230 people from 18 countries have visited the unique microgravity laboratory that has hosted more than 2,500 research investigations from researchers in 106 countries.

Conducting science aboard the orbiting laboratory will help us learn how to keep astronauts healthy during long-duration space travel and demonstrate technologies for future human and robotic exploration beyond low-Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars. 

NASA’s research and development work aboard the space station (pictured) contributes to the agency’s deep space exploration plans, including returning astronauts to the Moon’s surface in five years and preparing to send humans to Mars 

WHAT IS 3D PRINTING AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

First invented in the 1980s by Chuck Hull, an engineer and physicist, 3D printing technology – also called additive manufacturing – is the process of making an object by depositing material, one layer at a time.

Similarly to how an inkjet printer adds individual dots of ink to form an image, a 3D printer adds material where it is needed, based on a digital file.

Many conventional manufacturing processes involved cutting away excess materials to make a part, and this can lead to wastage of up to 30 pounds (13.6 kilograms) for every one pound of useful material, according to the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

By contrast, with some 3D printing processes about 98 per cent of the raw material is used in the finished part, and the method can be used to make small components using plastics and metal powders, with some experimenting with chocolate and other food, as well as biomaterials similar to human cells.

3D printers have been used to manufacture everything from prosthetic limbs to robots, and the process follows these basic steps:

· Creating a 3D blueprint using computer-aided design (CAD) software

· Preparing the printer, including refilling the raw materials such as plastics, metal powders and binding solutions.

· Initiating the printing process via the machine, which builds the object.

· 3D printing processes can vary, but material extrusion is the most common, and it works like a glue gun: the printing material is heated until it liquefies and is extruded through the print nozzle

· Using information from the digital file, the design is split into two-dimensional cross-sections so the printers knows where to put the material

· The nozzle deposits the polymer in thin layers, often 0.1 millimetre (0.004 inches) thick.

· The polymer rapidly solidifies, bonding to the layer below before the build platform lowers and the print head adds another layer (depending on the object, the entire process can take anywhere from minutes to days.)

· After the printing is finished, every object requires some post-processing, ranging from unsticking the object from the build platform to removing support, to removing excess powders. 

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News Photo SpaceX launch sends 3D bioprinter to space station
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